Why “Geek Out” is a key part of the TangoSource company culture

“Geek out” might seem like a strange and vague company value, so why write an entire blog post about that value alone? I recently met with a consultant who came down to our main development office in Colima a few months ago, and we were discussing her experience with us. By comparison to different service firms in Mexico, some who have their employees drink the Kool-Aid, she felt that a key advantage for us is one particular cultural element: Geek Out.

When I wrote our company culture document a few years ago, I put a lot of myself into it, based on my reality at the time and my aspirations for what a nearshore product development shop could be. After mulling it over for a few days, I had my list, and I realized it didn’t paint the complete picture of who we are and how we work. I added Geek Out as the last value on the list (at the time) after thinking about how much our team likes gaming, how we’ve all got different personal interests, and how we support each other’s personal expression.

Geeking out means to celebrate all of our respective individuality. In my experience, gaming helps people learn how to communicate and strategize flexibly and effectively. As you learn the rules of new games, you have to adapt. Each game has a variety of hard and soft skills, and tabletop games require that you play both the rules, and the other players. The same is true for music, dance, cooking, sports, and pretty much anything that people are passionate about.

Product and software development could be considered one of the most challenging and rewarding games in the world. It takes years to develop the hard skills which can be more easily observed: Is your code clear, maintainable, scalable, precise, and well architected? It also takes a lot of soft skills to be more than just an efficient code monkey: empathy, proactive communication, knowing what’s going on in tech, and personal ownership of the product and customer success. To be a high-level product person means putting your entire self and experiences into your work.

So if you work with us, or want to, please understand the intent of Geek Out. The best people bring their all into what they do. Rather than stifle individuality, I feel we should help it grow and mature, for all of us to enjoy and learn from.